414 
WINDS AND STORMS. 
Journal, by Messrs. Beck, Field, Hildreth, Hitchcock, and espe¬ 
cially the abstract of the meteorological registers kept at the several 
military posts of the United States, drawn up by Dr. Lovell, and 
inserted in the 12th Volume, page 153, when the westerly are to the 
easterly winds, for a term of four years, in the ratio of 12.59 to 9.63. 
That west and south-west winds prevail in that part of the Atlantic 
ocean which lies beyond the northern limit of the trade-winds, is so 
well known, that quotations in proof of it can hardly be necessary. 
See Broditch’s Navigation. 
Commodore Kreisenstern, as quoted by Wallenstein in the Bos¬ 
ton Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 3, page 282, states that “ in the 
Pacific ocean from latitude 30 degs. to the pole, the variable winds 
are generally from the north-east and south-west.” The following 
statements are from Encyclopaedias and other compilations. During 
a term of sixteen years, the westerly were to the easterly winds in 
Russia as 172 to 106. East winds prevail in Germany, west winds 
are most frequent on the north-east coast of Asia. In Nova Scotia, 
north-west, and at Hudson’s Bay west winds blow for three-fourths 
of the year. Our information respecting the winds of the southern 
hemisphere is less ample. Cape Horn (lat. 56 degs.) has long been 
infamous amongst navigators for the violent westerly gales that pre¬ 
vail there, rendering it sometimes almost impossible to sail round 
from the Atlantic into the Pacific. (See Stewart’s Journal.) “ The 
prevailing winds of this region are heavy gales from the west, the 
direct course to be steered in passing the Cape, and ships are often 
detained by them three times the period we have been (twenty-one 
days,) and meet with weather far more dangerous and severe; so 
much so, that many vessels, after striving in vain for weeks to make 
a passage into the Pacific, have been at last obliged to bear away 
for the Cape of Good Hope, and make their voyage across the Indian 
ocean.” In an account of the Falkland Islands by William Clayton, 
Esq. inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1776, it is stated 
that “ the prevailing winds are from the south to the west for two- 
thirds of the year, and in general boisterous and stormy.” “ In the 
southern Atlantic, at the extremity of South Africa, the winds are 
periodical, consonant during summer to the south-east trade, which 
constantly blows on each side of the promontory; but conforming in 
winter with the western winds that prevail at all times in the South¬ 
ern ocean. In other words, the fluctuating boundary of the western 
current of air touches upon the extremity of the African continent 
in winter, and recedes from it in summer.” 
(To be Continued.) 
